Nearly 1,200 Uninsured Receive Free Health Care

The Communities Are Responding Everyday Clinic was held at the Dallas Convention Center on Saturday.

The Dallas Morning News reports the center was converted into 60 temporary doctor's offices as patients received care including electrocardiograms and kidney disease screenings.

The event is one of 12 in a series of large C.A.R.E. Clinics held around the country. The National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC) has teamed with the Lone Star Association of Charitable Clinics (LSACC) and the North Texas Association of Charitable Clinics (NTACC) to put on the event.

Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country with about 26 percent of residents in general and 22 percent of children lacking health insurance.

Children were able to receive vision screenings and immunizations. The clinic was also an opportunity for uninsured Texans to learn of the services available to them for follow-up care, according to Nicole Lamoureux, executive director for NAFC.

“We want to make sure that we can help everyone understand that there are resources that are out there that they can access. You might have to wait, you may go on a waiting list, but it’s better to be on a waiting list than to not get the Health Care you need at all,” Lamoureux told KETR in September.

Service locations available to patients following the clinic include Health Center of Helping Hands for Rockwall County. Practice Manager Maggie Fuller tells us the facility assisted close to 6,000 individuals in 2011, and expects to serve more than 7,000 this year. However, those figures represent only about half of the uninsured in their service region.